The Heart on My Sleeve
A Poem About Blocked Emotions
The heart I wear on my sleeve is fake
Tattooed on long ago
When I forgot how to check my emotions
For each experience, each setting, each person;
It’s all too exhausting to keep track of
Day after day
Year after year—
Which are my emotions, which are yours,
A reflection I am forced to feed back to you
Just so I can fit in
In public
To society
With you;
I am too tired to maintain this charade
Hiding my emotions deep down
Putting on a mask for the show;
I yearn for a real connection
Real emotion
Real me—
But who am I
Really?
About the Creator
Stephanie Hoogstad
With a BA in English and MSc in Creative Writing, writing is my life. I have edited and ghost written for years with some published stories and poems of my own.
Learn more about me: thewritersscrapbin.com
Support my writing: Patreon
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Comments (6)
I feel this poem to my deepest soul. Your questions are so universal, so many lost souls we are. Yet we rise each day to the challenge of being a brighter hopeful us.
This was not what I expected from the title, so much more, nice work.
Lovely piece. Well done.
The ‘Heart’ of the matter begins with us. Do we always hide these emotions because we fear hurting others? Or is it because the mask isn’t ready to come off? Great poem. It makes me think about so many times I wasn’t myself. Hope all is well!
I love this one, Stephanie 😩😩❤️❤️ it’s an exhausting charade
This was so relatable and poignant! Loved your poem!